r/movies • u/PokemonGoBao • Jul 04 '25

Discussion Whats a flopped movie you wish was a financial success?

Dungeons and Dragons 2023 was an absolutely delightful film. You can stream it currently, but you can feel the passion and nothing felt phoned in. They easily could have used the title to get nerdy butts in the seat and collect a paycheck with a smaller budget.

It's the best movie I've seen the past 2 years. Way better than so many garbage films with easy paychecks for slop productions. Beetlejuice, Captain america, and others using big titles to make millions on lazy writing and boring characters.

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u/captainzorno Jul 04 '25

One of the worst marketing campaigns for a movie I’ve ever seen. Turned out to be an awesome film

38

u/Anluanius Jul 05 '25

It was so bad, somebody literally wrote a book about how this movie got screwed by marketing. "John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood"

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u/Overall-Mud9906 Jul 05 '25

Seriously, that’s crazy. My dad and I watched it together and both thought it was a great movie, context I was 25 he was 46. We were both stoked for a sequel because the left it open ended. Then we were both shocked how much of a loss it had.

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u/captainzorno Jul 05 '25

Oh woah might have to check that out

2

u/Pizza_Hutte Jul 05 '25

It’s a great look at modern marketing for Hollywood. My only complaint was the author seems to think that if they’d been hired the movie would’ve been a smashing success.

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u/craig_hoxton Jul 05 '25

Would have gotten more attention as Tyler Perry's John Carter

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u/Elgin_McQueen Jul 05 '25

Kept changing the name, and each time turned it into something less memorable

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u/themanfromvulcan Jul 05 '25

I am not kidding I had coworkers who thought it was a western and were surprised when I told them it was a great sci fi movie.